According to ancient legend, the city of Rome was officially founded in the year 753 BCE* on seven hills around the Tibur river in central Italy. For over 2,200 years a state existed that called itself Roman, and which could trace its political ancestry back to this legendary foundation. In the course of four centuries, Rome was to build an empire that encircled the Mediterranean, incorporating much of western Europe, north Africa, and the Middle East into a universal polity. The celebration of Roman triumphs over enemies therefore formed an important part of Roman culture from earliest times. Eternal victory and perpetual imperium were held by the Romans to be the gift of Heaven in return for Roman reverence of the gods. But it was the Roman administrative genius for tolerance and flexibility that was to make the diverse subjects of the Empire come to identify with Rome, its culture, and its imperial idea of a universal Commonwealth. Thus did the Roman Empire gradually outgrow its simple territorial designation, becoming a concept that stood for civilization itself.
* BCE = Before the Common Era (formerly B.C. Before Christ); CE = Common Era (formerly A.D. Anno Domini)

SIIAS A 63-83;
Height 9 1/5 inches
Said to have been found at Baiae, near Naples, Italy.
White marble, 1st century BCE
Gift of the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the Piero Tozzi Gallery, 1963

This sculpture is typical of the portraiture of the late Republic. The portrait is life-size and probably formed part of a statue, bust or funerary relief. The head is carved in the so-called veristic style that represented the subject in a highly realistic manner, in this case with the furrowed brow, sunken cheeks and grave expression of an older man. Links have been drawn between this style of portraiture and the death masks or imagines maiorum of Roman ancestors, which were carried in funeral processions. The portrait also illustrates the impact of Hellenism on Rome, since these portraits were inspired by Hellenistic portraiture and were probably carved by Greek artists.
Right image: Head of Caracalla, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art